From BAM! to BURP!: A Carbon Atom's Never-Ending Journey Through Space and Time and YOU [Hardcover]

Follow a carbon atom on its incredible adventure over billions of years. It’s been part of many things—from early volcanic gases, to plants that dinosaurs devoured, to your breakfast burp!

By award-winning children’s author Melissa Stewart, this epic nonfiction picture book for 5-8-year-olds is a perfect blend of science and history that STEM-seekers will eat up!

Long ago, the young Earth crashed into a smaller body called Theia. Matter blasted through space, and the carbon atom was trapped deep inside Earth until a volcano erupted, thrusting tons of ash and gases—including the carbon atom—high into the sky.

Over millions of years, the carbon atom has been part of all kinds of things, including plants and dinosaurs, eggshells and seashells, a lump of coal, and even a sheet of toilet paper! Not long ago, it became part of a towering maple tree and then a drop of maple syrup. Just imagine that the syrup ended up on YOUR pancakes and then inside your body. And when you let out a deep breath, the carbon left your lungs, met up with a blast of gas from your stomach, and  . . . BURP!

You never know where a carbon atom will go next. . . . Get ready to take off on a wild ride, From BAM! to BURP!♦ Using a friendly tone and speaking directly to readers, this book explains how a carbon atom that is now in a human might once have been in the body of a dinosaur. That’s a story young readers will want to know. The work opens as a small planet called Theia, containing carbon and other elements, crashes into the Earth. Over time, the carbon atom was released when a volcano erupted, and that started its voyage from Earth to tree to dinosaur to another tree to a person. It took billions of years. The book is infused with the author’s friendly and humorous tone. For example, after statl³ˆ